Raspberry Pi - 35$ computer on a card

Still waiting for mine, bought a case for it too, hurry up!

it arrived!!

Nice, tempted to get one to run a network storage (as a server i guess), but I don't have the first clue how to get that to work! Seems pretty straight forward though.

http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS

How difficult do you think it would be to set one up with a copy of Ableton Live and, maybe, two soft synths? I'd love to be able to not have to bring my laptop to gigs anymore, because all I do is open up some instruments and perform from my MIDI keyboard without looking at the screen.

If I could condense my whole thing into one of those I would not hesitate to do so, it is meant not freaking out about carrying an expensive, fragile, and desirable piece of gear around with me.

  On 5/24/2012 at 9:54 PM, Wall Bird said:

How difficult do you think it would be to set one up with a copy of Ableton Live and, maybe, two soft synths? I'd love to be able to not have to bring my laptop to gigs anymore, because all I do is open up some instruments and perform from my MIDI keyboard without looking at the screen.

 

If I could condense my whole thing into one of those I would not hesitate to do so, it is meant not freaking out about carrying an expensive, fragile, and desirable piece of gear around with me.

nice idea, but it's not built around an x86 processor but ARM, so you won't be able to run ableton live on it.. so far they only have Linux distributions running on it (maybe FreeBSD).

just re-signed up today, I dunno exactly what happened... saw the link thought it was spam.

  On 5/24/2012 at 12:44 AM, iep said:

it seems like it'll run supercollider, might grab a couple and try to grid em

I'm curious about this too. I tried to find some information about doing this on Google. I guess someone got it running on a Beagleboard but they said they had to crank the latency to 500ms which is horrible. I don't have enough information to venture a guess as to whether the results would be different on a Raspberry Pi.

What do you mean by "grid" them?

connect them in a network via OSC and distribute processes in scollider

if it supports linux and usb maybe it's possible to use a decent soundcard that'll help keep the latency down as well

  On 5/25/2012 at 12:27 AM, iep said:

connect them in a network via OSC and distribute processes in scollider

Ah, cool. Good to know you can do that. I want to spend more time with SC.

  On 5/25/2012 at 12:27 AM, iep said:

if it supports linux and usb maybe it's possible to use a decent soundcard that'll help keep the latency down as well

The person who wrote the blog entry I mentioned was actually using a pro USB soundcard. Maudio something sport, can't be arsed to google it. Point being, it should have had much better latency.

it's only a 700MHz CPU...

to put that into perspective, many phones for the past 2 years have been way faster than this.

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:45 AM, oscillik said:

it's only a 700MHz CPU...

 

to put that into perspective, many phones for the past 2 years have been way faster than this.

True. If only it were easier to get a low-latency linux kernel, GPIO, and USB on a phone.

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:57 AM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:45 AM, oscillik said:

it's only a 700MHz CPU...

 

to put that into perspective, many phones for the past 2 years have been way faster than this.

 

True. If only it were easier to get a low-latency linux kernel, GPIO, and USB on a phone.

My post was more aimed at the one about running Ableton Live on it, sorry I should have made that more clear.

But since you're on the topic of having all those things on a phone...this was released in 2009 and is capable of all those that you mention.

Even if it didn't have a slow ass CPU, you wouldn't be able to get anywhere fucking near moderately low latency on this because it doesn't have a legit sound card amirite? Sorry peeps.

Who did you order yours with, kaen? I've got one on the way from Farnell (finally), although I have to admit I've fallen out of the loop in terms of what folks have been up to with the Pi... any recommended sites worth taking a look at?

  On 5/24/2012 at 12:50 PM, jhonny said:

Nice, tempted to get one to run a network storage (as a server i guess), but I don't have the first clue how to get that to work! Seems pretty straight forward though.

 

http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS

That was one of my thoughts when I first heard about the Pi, but I've just had a Synology server arrive this week so no real need now. Using XBMC interests me, it would be cool to hook the Pi into my network and a TV, perhaps get some media streaming via the server on the go.

i wonder how many raspberry pi's are going to end up lost in a drawer after a couple of weeks when everyone realises you can't do anything with it that you couldn't already do more easily with that old laptop you've had sitting around for years, your PS3, your phone etc etc... ah well, least it's cheap.

yeah, it seems like people who have money and decent computers and phones are buying these anyway. i understand the reasons why, but still.

Considering you can run full 1080p hd direct and streaming on it with xbmc and a usenet download server off of one quite successfully i don't know why your being so negative bcm. its 25bucks for fuck sake. stick it to the back of your tv, boom, media center. who knows what people will squeeze out of it later.

  On 5/25/2012 at 10:14 AM, jasondonervan said:

Who did you order yours with, kaen? I've got one on the way from Farnell (finally)

same!

  On 5/25/2012 at 2:41 AM, oscillik said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:57 AM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:45 AM, oscillik said:

it's only a 700MHz CPU...

 

to put that into perspective, many phones for the past 2 years have been way faster than this.

 

True. If only it were easier to get a low-latency linux kernel, GPIO, and USB on a phone.

 

My post was more aimed at the one about running Ableton Live on it, sorry I should have made that more clear.

 

But since you're on the topic of having all those things on a phone...this was released in 2009 and is capable of all those that you mention.

  N900 wiki article said:

CPU TI OMAP 3430 SoC

600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU

430 MHz C64x+ DSP^[2]

Hmm. I guess the DSP would end up doing the heavy lifting for audio? But how would you be able to offload this from SC? Seems like you'd have to get down and dirty with C to write stuff for that. It's a cool thing but it seems like apples and oranges.

  On 5/25/2012 at 8:21 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

Even if it didn't have a slow ass CPU, you wouldn't be able to get anywhere fucking near moderately low latency on this because it doesn't have a legit sound card amirite? Sorry peeps.

Nope it doesn't, but you could hook up a USB sound card that has good driver support under Linux. Good luck finding one though...

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:05 PM, BCM said:

i wonder how many raspberry pi's are going to end up lost in a drawer after a couple of weeks when everyone realises you can't do anything with it that you couldn't already do more easily with that old laptop you've had sitting around for years, your PS3, your phone etc etc... ah well, least it's cheap.

the target market for the Raspberry Pi are enthusiasts. The kind of people that tinker around with Linux. People who aren't likely to tinker around with this kind of thing, yes they'll chuck it in the drawer. But then, they weren't the target market.

  On 5/25/2012 at 4:51 PM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 2:41 AM, oscillik said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:57 AM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 1:45 AM, oscillik said:

it's only a 700MHz CPU...

 

to put that into perspective, many phones for the past 2 years have been way faster than this.

 

True. If only it were easier to get a low-latency linux kernel, GPIO, and USB on a phone.

 

My post was more aimed at the one about running Ableton Live on it, sorry I should have made that more clear.

 

But since you're on the topic of having all those things on a phone...this was released in 2009 and is capable of all those that you mention.

  N900 wiki article said:

CPU TI OMAP 3430 SoC

600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU

430 MHz C64x+ DSP^[2]

Hmm. I guess the DSP would end up doing the heavy lifting for audio? But how would you be able to offload this from SC? Seems like you'd have to get down and dirty with C to write stuff for that. It's a cool thing but it seems like apples and oranges.

PulseAudio for offloading audio.

And it's not really apples and oranges. You said it wasn't easy to get hold of a phone that had GPIO and USB on board. The N900 has GPIO capability and USB. Granted, I'm not too sure if a low latency kernel exists for the N900, but it is most definitely possible to install various different operating systems on there, actual Debian being one of them. Maemo 5 is itself a flavour of Debian, and actually uses PulseAudio as it's sound system, which makes it incredibly easy to record phone calls.

As far as saying it's apples and oranges compared to the Raspberry Pi, still not really. They're both devices targeted at enthusiasts, both are extremely hackable. The only difference being is that the Nokia N900 has, by proxy of it being a GSM phone, some proprietary drivers and firmware concerning the cellular modem. Everything else is open.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:03 PM, oscillik said:

PulseAudio for offloading audio.

PulseAudio seems more of a routing system. I meant, the processors in it are pretty slow. Seems like the DSP could be useful for processing audio and I thought maybe that's what you were getting at. But to utilize it, don't you have to write custom code specifically to run on it? I am not aware of a way to make a DSP chip like that run SC.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:03 PM, oscillik said:

And it's not really apples and oranges. You said it wasn't easy to get hold of a phone that had GPIO and USB on board. The N900 has GPIO capability and USB. Granted, I'm not too sure if a low latency kernel exists for the N900, but it is most definitely possible to install various different operating systems on there, actual Debian being one of them. Maemo 5 is itself a flavour of Debian, and actually uses PulseAudio as it's sound system, which makes it incredibly easy to record phone calls.

That is cool stuff.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:03 PM, oscillik said:

As far as saying it's apples and oranges compared to the Raspberry Pi, still not really. They're both devices targeted at enthusiasts, both are extremely hackable. The only difference being is that the Nokia N900 has, by proxy of it being a GSM phone, some proprietary drivers and firmware concerning the cellular modem. Everything else is open.

For one, the Raspberry Pi does have video outputs, both composite PAL/NTSC and HDMI. The Nokia has a screen, which might actually be more convenient in some cases. That is also sorta apples/oranges.

It's got an Ethernet connection so even if you had terrible latency, you use it as an OSC controller with an ADC connected to the GPIO. Of course you could probably do the same over Wi-Fi with the N900 but would that add more latency?

I don't have a horse in this game. I am curious about the Raspberry Pi and I might get one to fart around with because, hey, it's a cool little computer and it costs about as much as lunch for 2 - cheaper than my Arduino was, even! But I know it will probably end up in a sock drawer eventually. Good to know about that N900 though, I might be checking that out too.

More Pi

I just googled "N900 GPIO" and it sounds like you have to do some weird shit to get to it, like desoldering the MMC pins. http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking

Also I checked eBay prices and it looks like it's about $180?

Not really comparable, dude.

Raspberry Pi FTW.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:34 PM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:03 PM, oscillik said:

As far as saying it's apples and oranges compared to the Raspberry Pi, still not really. They're both devices targeted at enthusiasts, both are extremely hackable. The only difference being is that the Nokia N900 has, by proxy of it being a GSM phone, some proprietary drivers and firmware concerning the cellular modem. Everything else is open.

For one, the Raspberry Pi does have video outputs, both composite PAL/NTSC and HDMI. The Nokia has a screen, which might actually be more convenient in some cases. That is also sorta apples/oranges.

 

It's got an Ethernet connection so even if you had terrible latency, you use it as an OSC controller with an ADC connected to the GPIO. Of course you could probably do the same over Wi-Fi with the N900 but would that add more latency?

The N900 has video output via 3.5mm AV cable. Granted, it's not HD but it's something. And Ethernet is possible on the N900, although tinkering would be required.

N900s are obviously vastly more expensive than the Raspberry Pi (when I bought mine brand new in December 2009, it was £500. Availability in the US would be a bit harder to come by than over here.) and the N900 is more for people who want a portable Debian box that fits in their pocket. But it is a nice little hackable box if you can get your hands on one.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:40 PM, sweepstakes said:

I just googled "N900 GPIO" and it sounds like you have to do some weird shit to get to it, like desoldering the MMC pins. http://wiki.maemo.or...ardware_Hacking

Also I checked eBay prices and it looks like it's about $180?

Not really comparable, dude.

Raspberry Pi FTW.

Are you seriously complaining about having to do 'weird shit' to get access to GPIO?! In context of the Raspberry Pi?! A hackable device is a hackable device.

And I wasn't aware that we were talking about price here, I was talking about hackable capabilities.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:46 PM, oscillik said:

The N900 has video output via 3.5mm AV cable. Granted, it's not HD but it's something. And Ethernet is possible on the N900, although tinkering would be required.

OK, that is pretty cool.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:46 PM, oscillik said:

the N900 is more for people who want a portable Debian box that fits in their pocket. But it is a nice little hackable box if you can get your hands on one.

See, that makes a lot more sense. It seems to fit somewhere between a GP2X and a linux netbook, and obviously it's a phone too.

I see the Raspberry Pi more as an Arduino board with Linux inside, especially at its price point - cheaper than an Arduino!

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:49 PM, oscillik said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:40 PM, sweepstakes said:

I just googled "N900 GPIO" and it sounds like you have to do some weird shit to get to it, like desoldering the MMC pins. http://wiki.maemo.or...ardware_Hacking

Also I checked eBay prices and it looks like it's about $180?

Not really comparable, dude.

Raspberry Pi FTW.

 

Are you seriously complaining about having to do 'weird shit' to get access to GPIO?! In context of the Raspberry Pi?! A hackable device is a hackable device.

 

And I wasn't aware that we were talking about price here, I was talking about hackable capabilities.

Point taken but if I have to disable MMC support to get at the GPIO that does kind of suck.

I don't see the point in ignoring the price. That's the barrier to entry. Also i don't see the point in ignoring having to desolder to get access to the same capabilities. I'm not sure how involved it is in this case but desoldering can be a major pain if you don't have access to an expensive rework station.

These are both barriers that the Raspberry Pi is not imposing. It's a lot friendlier for hacking purposes.

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:56 PM, sweepstakes said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:46 PM, oscillik said:

The N900 has video output via 3.5mm AV cable. Granted, it's not HD but it's something. And Ethernet is possible on the N900, although tinkering would be required.

 

OK, that is pretty cool.

 

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:46 PM, oscillik said:

the N900 is more for people who want a portable Debian box that fits in their pocket. But it is a nice little hackable box if you can get your hands on one.

 

See, that makes a lot more sense. It seems to fit somewhere between a GP2X and a linux netbook, and obviously it's a phone too.

 

I see the Raspberry Pi more as an Arduino board with Linux inside, especially at its price point - cheaper than an Arduino!

 

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:49 PM, oscillik said:

  On 5/25/2012 at 5:40 PM, sweepstakes said:

I just googled "N900 GPIO" and it sounds like you have to do some weird shit to get to it, like desoldering the MMC pins. http://wiki.maemo.or...ardware_Hacking

Also I checked eBay prices and it looks like it's about $180?

Not really comparable, dude.

Raspberry Pi FTW.

 

Are you seriously complaining about having to do 'weird shit' to get access to GPIO?! In context of the Raspberry Pi?! A hackable device is a hackable device.

 

And I wasn't aware that we were talking about price here, I was talking about hackable capabilities.

 

Point taken but if I have to disable MMC support to get at the GPIO that does kind of suck.

 

I don't see the point in ignoring the price. That's the barrier to entry. Also i don't see the point in ignoring having to desolder to get access to the same capabilities. I'm not sure how involved it is in this case but desoldering can be a major pain if you don't have access to an expensive rework station.

 

These are both barriers that the Raspberry Pi is not imposing. It's a lot friendlier for hacking purposes.

Oh I wasn't ignoring the price, I just wasn't really aware that the price point was part of the conversation. I should've realised that it might've come into play though. Certainly, it is a barrier to entry, especially since the Raspberry Pi is being touted as a hackable device aimed at education establishments and such. Those are much less likely to spend hundreds of pounds/dollars on a phone that Nokia all but gave up supporting 6 months after launch (I'm still bitter about that).